


Unintended Consequences

by Penguin_Lord



Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 04:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2095746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penguin_Lord/pseuds/Penguin_Lord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After winning the Vampire Rock Music Festival Mystery Inc. accidentally become famous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unintended Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> So this started out as a small plot bunny. It grown into a small story. It might have a sequel, I'm not sure. It was written for my own amusement but I hope someone else finds it amusing as well.

When Daniel had said winning the Vampire Rock Music Festival meant something in the Australian music world, the gang had nodded and instantly thought ‘motive’. They had thought in terms of Big Red and dognapping and winning County Dog Fairs. They had thought in terms of eliminating the competition and why the Yowie Yahoo would show up and start kidnapping bands. They had thought of Wildwind, clues, and what they did best: mysteries.

But what Daniel was thinking of was record contracts, agents, managers, and cold hard cash. It came as a surprise the day after the Festival ended when the heads of Beachfront Records (Australia’s largest music label) pulled up into their campsite and started a bidding war right then and there on their first single.

None of them were strangers to the entertainment industry. Daphne’s stint as a television host and Fred’s experience as her camera-man, manager, and all around crew helped them tremendously. It made the gang a step ahead other people that might have faced the same situation and otherwise would have signed away their souls.

Thus Fred was able to politely shoe the excited executives away.

(“Thank you so much for the offer, but as you can see-“ here he gestured to the camping gear and tents “-we’re currently taking a break after the Festival. If you will leave me your contact information, we will be happy to get back to both of you after a couple of business days.” )

“Like, what was that?” Shaggy wanted to know. He and Scooby had only caught the tail tale end of it, being the deep sleepers they were.

“I think they were trying to get us under contract,” Daphne admitted, still in shock.

“Rontrac?” Scooby repeated.

“Contract. Like as a music band?” Shaggy scratched his head. “But, like we only did that to help Daniel out because all the other bands had been like kidnapped.”

“Tell that to those guys,” Fred returned to their campsites, motioning with his hand to the fading dust trails upturned by retreating cars. “I had to practically swear that I was going to contact them in less than two business days.”

“What exactly did Daniel say would happen to the bands that won this music festival?” Velma asked suspiciously.

None of them really had an answer.

“Right,” Fred spoke up. “Let’s pack up camp and then go and find Daniel. I’m sure he can clarify why two music executives tracked us down this early in the morning.” 

\-----

“You mean you didn’t know?” Daniel exclaimed.

“Like, know what?” Shaggy spoke up, munching on some leftover food from the food vendor stalls that were currently being taken down, along with the rest of the setup for the festival.

“Whoever wins the Vampire Rock Music Festival gets a contract with Beachfront Records, the hottest music label in Australia. They are basically guaranteed instant entrance to the music world.”

“That explains why Wildwind was so desperate to win,” Daphne admitted.

“I thought you already knew this when you solved the mystery yesterday,” Daniel teased the gang.

“Well yeah, but we didn’t think we’d have Record Label executives coming to our camp before the sun rose to get us to sign with them,” Fred added.

“But like we didn’t actually win the contest,” Shaggy pointed out.

“Yes, but as the last band left, you win it by default. No one actually cares because of how good you were last night anyways,” Daniel exclaimed. “I still can’t believe it. Velma, you didn’t tell me you had such a pair of lungs on you.”

Velma blushed crimson, “Well I…ah… I’m not that great,” she argued.

“What? You sound amazing. Doesn’t she, gang?” Daniel turned to the rest of the gang.

They nodded happily.

“Like Daniel’s right Velma. You sound groovy.”

“Yeah, Velma, we’ve been telling you for years you’ve got a fantastic voice. Now all we need to do is translate those songs from the back of the Mystery Machine onto actual instruments,” Fred grinned.

“Do we actually have to go through with this contract?” Daphne wanted to know. “What does it entail exactly?”

“Hold on a mite,” Daniel ran to his temporary trailer of an office. He returned with a couple pages of paper and handed them to Daphne. “This is the standard contract that we normally use. Bands are of course welcome to negotiate their own contracts with Beachfront Records but this is the basic one. As you can see, the contract is good for one album and the band gets 15% of the profits. After that, it’s up to the band to renegotiate. Obviously winning the festival isn’t a binding contract. You don’t have to sign with Beachfront, or at all for that matter. It’s entirely up to you.”

Daniel shot a quick retreat, leaving the gang to make their own decision.

Fred looked at his closest friends in the whole world. “Well, what do we think? Like Daniel said, we don’t have to if we don’t want to.”

“The contract is pretty much as described,” Daphne added. “Once the first album is done, we don’t have to give them any more.”

“Like, how much longer are we going to be in like Australia?” Shaggy asked.

“We’ve got another three weeks,” Velma admitted.

They all looked at each other in bemusement.

“Think we can do it in three weeks?” Fred asked.

“Absolutely,” Velma declared.

“Definitely. Sounds fun,” Daphne agreed.

“As long as another ghost doesn’t show up,” Shaggy grumbled good naturedly.

“Scooby Dooby Doo!” Scooby cried.

\-----

As promised, Fred got into contact with the executives with Beachfront Records in two business days. He outlined their terms and negotiations began. They were able to get their first term: they could start right away and hopefully be done in three weeks. Their second term was shot down, much to their chagrin. Apparently after thousands of screaming fans had already started uploading videos and pictures of their band under the name ‘The Meddling Kids’ to the internet, it was near impossible to change it.

The gang had long ago started making up songs in the back of the Mystery Machine to pass the time. It didn’t take much (thankfully all the gang could read and transcribe music) to adapt it. Most of their songs were about their adventures so they never ran out of inspiration anyway.

The album was done in two weeks, a week shy of their deadline. The gang had time to relax (and solve the mystery of the haunted Sydney Opera House) before they shipped out to Japan, which was their next destination. They had told Beachfront Records to get into contact with Daphne’s lawyer aunt, if they needed anything else.

Their stop in Japan prevented them from realizing the consequences of their actions right away.

A month in the land of the rising sun and five or so mysteries later, they touch down in Portland, Oregon, unloading their van from the barge it had been shipped on. Their first clue that something was amiss was when they were driving through the downtown and people started pointing at the van.

Now normally, it was normal for the van to garner a little bit of attention. It’s flamboyant paint job and their small, though not wide spread, reputation as dedicated mystery-solvers sometimes provoked the occasional question from locals. Yet nothing like this had ever happened.

People were even beginning to take pictures with their cell phones.

“Like zoinks, I wonder what the big deal is,” Shaggy scratched his head, catching sight of another couple of teens stopped on the corner, gawking.

“Jinkies, I didn’t think our van was that strangely painted, especially for Portland,” Velma agreed.

“I have to agree Velma. I wonder why everyone’s staring,” Fred said, not removing his eyes from the road.

“Jeepers, I think that might be the reason. Look!” Daphne pointed excitedly at a nearby music store.

A large fluorescent poster covered all but one of the windows of the large store. To their surprise, the gang saw themselves staring back at them from the window. ‘The Meddling Kids’ the poster proudly proclaimed, ‘Album out August 25th’.

“Like wow!” Shaggy breathed out in awe.

“Rike Row,” Scooby repeated.

“Holy cats, that’s us!” Daphne summed up.

Fred pulled over into a nearby parking space so that he too could stare at the rather remarkable sight.

“Daph, I think we’d better call your aunt right now,” Velma said faintly.

\-----

They were up for several Australian Record Industry Association awards as well as two Grammys. Scooby Doo! Where are You? and The Ghost is a Fake were immediately their most popular songs. Their songs had exploded as soon as they hit the airwaves in Australia and had grown even more popular in America once people learned that ‘The Meddling Kids’ were actually Mystery, Inc.

“You mean you didn’t know?” Daphne’s aunt exclaimed in surprise over the phone. They had quickly found a hotel room and dialed up Daphne’s aunt. Now they were all clustered around the phone on speaker.

“No, we didn’t. We’ve been in Japan for a month and apparently it takes a little bit for English songs to make it there,” Fred admitted.

“But why didn’t the record company contact us?” Velma wanted to know.

“We didn’t want them to,” Daphne remembered. “We told them to bring anything to my aunt. I guess the awards and popularity fell under that umbrella.”

“Well, like, what do we do?” Shaggy wondered.

“Do?” Daphne’s aunt laughed. “Darling, you ride the wave. Make another album or two; Beachfront has been bugging me for weeks to see if you’ll do another. Maybe do some concerts. You could get in contact with your friends, the Hex Girls, and see if they want to do a tour with you. And above all, you keep solving mysteries. That’s what you love to do, right?”

The gang looked at each other and Fred answered for all of them. “That’s right. Solving mysteries, it’s what we’re good at.”

“Well, think of it this way. If you tour, you have a free pass to do what you already do, that is, travel and find mysteries. And even if you don’t and just make money off albums and song downloads, you’ll have a nice nest egg with which to buy gas money for that van of yours. It can’t have that great of gas mileage.” Daphne’s aunt was a bubbly woman and was secretly laughing her ass off at her favorite niece’s situation. It wasn’t every day you found out you were accidentally famous.

“That sounds like a good plan actually,” Fred smiled.

“And it lacks all those Rube Goldberg elements that make all our other plans fail,” Daphne teased their de facto planner.

“Hey, that Ape-Man trap worked out just fine. And the Miner Forty-Niner trap would have worked if Scooby could have stopped.”

“Rey!” Scooby exclaimed.

“Sorry Scooby, it wasn’t your fault.”

Scooby grumbled but Fred scratched him behind the ears in apology. Scooby cracked and gave Fred a big lick across the face.

“Ah, Scooby!” Fred laughed.

“But we’re all agreed?” Velma wanted to know.

“Like let’s do it!” Shaggy agreed.

\----

In the end, international fame didn’t have a noticeable effect on the gang. They still solved mysteries, had fun, made new friends and caught up with old ones. They still traveled. They still made the most of everyday.

They would just sometimes be asked for autographs or to pose to pictures or to sing at random concerts.

All in all, not a bad unintended consequence for one vacation.

It didn’t however hold a candle to helping discover the real Loch Ness Monster.

But that’s another story entirely.


End file.
